


Hell is Other People

by DarlingCera



Category: Exquisite Corpse - Poppy Z. Brite
Genre: Afterlife, Hell, M/M, Mild Fluff, Murder, Post-Canon, Reunion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-29
Updated: 2017-05-04
Packaged: 2018-02-15 06:39:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2219580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarlingCera/pseuds/DarlingCera
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Andrew isn't surprised when he arrives at the gates of Hell after his death.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Andrew Compton, to his great displeasure, left the world rather quietly almost a year after Jay’s death. In his last thoughts, he wondered if anybody had found Jay, or if he remained where he had been left, now nothing but an arrangement of bones and dried viscera.

He had traveled out west, into the deserts and the neon streets of Las Vegas, where the pickings were easy and the booze was endless. Young men of all sorts presented themselves to him like dishes on a buffet, and oh how willing they were to follow an English gentleman back to his small, dingy flat. But with every day, he grew weaker, and all the treatments they had were poison anyways. HIV was going to kill him any day now, so why not play dead until he actually was? Jay wouldn’t have wanted that, that’s why. 

Instead he kept killing, kept taking bits and pieces from every man he met, and though he had nothing quite as large as Jay’s freezer to store them in, he certainly managed to have enough meat to keep himself happy. He remembered Jay with every bite, and thought of their first meal together when he looked at the bottles of Cajun seasonings he’d picked up at a market. 

His condition grew worse, as his t-cell count got lower, and he had been smart enough to freeze as much meat as he could, simply because he knew that a day would come when he could no longer take down a strapping young lad. That day came during a scorching summer. The air conditioner was out, and Andrew was laying, weak , in a pool of his own sweat. He knew that when he died, he would stink and it wouldn’t take long for the neighbors to complain, for his door to be opened and for his bloated corpse to be found in repose on the sticky white sheets. Andrew took comfort in that thought, that he would be like Jay was when he had finally left New Orleans forever. Until now, he had never contemplated an afterlife, but as he closed his eyes for the last time, he hoped the image of Jay laying on the stark white floor, bleeding out so beautifully, wouldbe burned into his lids for eternity. 

Andrew awoke in his bed. 

From the window he could see that the sky outside was red. Probably dusk. He felt better, like he hadn’t felt in months. Then he realized that he was floating above his own corpse. He eyed it suspiciously, thinking about his next move. This time, it hadn’t been on purpose, he hadn’t laid there, shutting down every bodily function. Never before had he walked away from his body, and now seemed like the best time to try. He tentatively moved to the side, and positioned himself on the floor next to his bed and took a few steps forward. It was entirely possible! Perhaps he really had died this time. How absolutely fascinating. He thought, leaving his bedroom and walking into the parlor, and finally out the front door. 

Instead of the hallway, however, he was met with a desert scape, red sky, and towering wrought-iron gates which periodically opened to allow whoever was at the front of the long queue line in. “What the hell?” he muttered aloud. 

“What the hell indeed.” A voice said behind him. Andrew turned around to see a particularly grouchy old woman covered in her own vomit. He disregarded her, the realization of where he was took hold. 

_Hell. I’m in Hell._

It seemed like a long wait, but he doubted that it was. Perhaps time moving slowly was a sort of preliminary punishment. 

Finally, it was his turn. The demon at the gate knew him immediately. “Andrew Compton, London’s Eternal Host. Welcome, I’m sure you’ll enjoy eternity here.” He was a tall, muscular man with horns, like a bouncer at a nightclub, guarding the gates to the underworld’s best kept secret. 

“Enjoy? Isn’t hell about punishment?” Andrew furrowed his brow. 

“It can be if you’re into that kind of thing.” The demon replied with a smirk as he pressed the button that opened the gate with a long-nailed finger and Andrew stepped tentatively through. 

Hell was much different than he had originally expected. The landscape left plenty to be desired, but the occupants seemed content as the milled about, going in and out of clubs and bars on what looked vaguely like a street in the French Quarter. Andrew began to explore, his curiosity getting the better of him as he poked his head into various doors, finally settling in a bar to drink what was possibly the best beer he had ever tasted. 

He was recognized here, he could tell by the way people looked at him. He shook hands with a great many, terrible people who were pleased to make his acquaintance, and a man who claimed to be Jack The Ripper himself. Andrew believed him, the man had to be dead by now. He recognized cult leaders and killers from the news, and Andrew would swear that he had seen Adolf Hitler himself snogging a man in a corner while Ava Braun watched and smoked a cigarette. 

Andrew left the bar and walked around more, coming upon a street of homes. He wondered where he was to live. Hell seemed a bit too much like New Orleans, but that almost didn’t surprise him. Maybe hell was whatever he made it. He tried to imagine London, but nothing changed. 

These were the homes of the wealthy with gates and little keypads to get into them. The houses looked vaguely familiar and Andrew didn’t realize where he was until he saw the pineapples. He looked through the bars of the gate on to the familiar façade of Jay’s home. He stared a minute, pushing his spectacles up the bridge of his nose and tucking his hands in his pockets. This was a trick. It absolutely had to be. He pushed on the heavy bars, and to his surprise the gate opened without a sound. No blaring alarms, or floodlights. That’s when Andrew decided that all of this had to be the biggest, most elaborate ruse he had ever encountered and that perhaps there was some sort of beast waiting, hungrily in the parlor, ready to devour him limb from limb and to slurp his intestines like noodles. 

Andrew turned the doorknob, and pushed the door open. There was seemingly nothing waiting for him here. He walked around, looking at every immaculate detail of the house. The black and white bathroom, the kitchen and the big jambalaya pot on the counter. It looked like nobody had ever lived here, but that was always the case with Jay’s house. He never understood how anybody could go about such a sanitary existence. 

“Jay?” He said into the quiet, as he turned in to the library to find Jay slumped in the biggest arm chair, his blond hair falling across his face as he slept with a large surgical book propped in his lap. 

“Jay?” Andrew nudged him, his heart pounding in his chest. “Jay, wakeup. “ 

Jay Byrnes had been out like a light for hours now, after finally crashing. He had sworn he was dreaming now, and he wanted to laugh. It wasn’t like Andrew wasn’t constantly showing up in his dreams. But so was Tran, and Birdy and his diseased ropes of intestines. 

“Andrew, shut up and let me go back to sleep. But before you do that would you mind carrying me to bed? This chair is going to put an awful crick in my neck.” He muttered, letting the book slide off of his lap and onto the floor. 

“Jay, _you ass._ Wake up. I’m dead.” Andrew demanded. 

The sudden, serious tone, in his voice brought Jay out of his sleepy stupor, and he sat up, taking Andrew in and trying to figure out if he really was awake or not. “You…You’re dead? You’re really here? Right now?” He looked around the room for any sign that he was still sleeping. 

“Yes, I’m here, so move whatever rotten corpse you’ve got in my spot on the bed out unless you’re willing to share.” Andrew couldn’t help but smile now. Jay shot up from the chair and kissed Andrew long and hard. 

“I’ve been waiting, it feels like it’s been centuries. Finally you’re here! You would think in this place I would find someone that knows me the way you do, but no, no, no. “ he said into Andrew’s shoulder. 

“Yes, yes, I’m here. I’m here and we can pick up right where we left off.” Andrew patted Jay’s back, before pushing him gently away to get a good look at him. Across his neck was a thick scar where Luke had sliced him open. Jay touched it tentatively, almost embarrassed that he had been defeated by the likes of Luke Ransom. “Come on.” He said, leading Andrew by the hand to the bedroom. “I want to know everything you’ve done since that night. I do hope you’ll satisfy my curiosity as well as a few other needs”.


	2. Chapter 2

Andrew had carried Jay up the stairs in a sudden burst of vibrant energy and vigor that he hadn’t experienced in years. Jay was slim, but had a density to him that was surprising. He playfully tossed Jay on the bed and climbed on top of him. Jay allowed it, accepting kisses that made his cold heart flutter. Andrew kicked off his shoes and stripped before getting under the blankets while Jay chucked off his bathrobe and did the same.

Jay tucked himself into the crook of Andrew’s arm and looked up at him with smiling blue eyes. “So tell me what you’ve been up to, darlin’” he said as he tangled their legs together “Watchin’ your loved ones only works from above, ya know? The view from down here stinks. You see a lot of tree roots and the bottoms of people’s feet.” Of course he was kidding,but Andrew didn’t know that. 

“I left New Orleans” He began “I got on a train and went west. I wound up in Las Vegas. “ Jay stopped him with a bright laugh. 

“Vegas? Now I never woulda’ imagined a proper English Gent like yourself roaming the strip lookin’ for boys” Jay caressed Andrew’s cheek. God in Heaven he looked gorgeous. Like he had never been sick at all. This must have been what he was like before he was arrested. And what he probably would have come to look like if Jay had lived long enough to fatten him up a little bit. Hell certainly suited the both of them. 

Andrew smiled, stopping a moment and placing his glasses on the nightstand. “I picked up a lot of boys. A lot of backpackers. People who were passing through, they wouldn’t be missed. I was getting sicker by that point. I’d kill them, I’d put their meat in the freezer in my flat. I knew one day I couldn’t take them down anymore. Then one day...I hadn’t been feeling so great for about a week. I fell asleep and never woke up again. That’s it, love. Now I’m here with you.” He said, running a finger through Jay’s blond curls. Jay got a little thrill out of Andrew calling him “Love” How very British. He smiled and hugged Andrew tightly. 

“Well we’re gonna be very happy here, mon cher” They kissed again and Andrew reached slowly up Jay’s thigh and found exactly what he was looking for. “Gettin’ frisky already? I see death hasn’t changed you much.” Jay laughed and went along with it, moving his hips into every touch. They fucked, hard and rough and messy before collapsing on to the bed, Jay smiling and laughing in a way that made Andrew ache in the best way possible. 

Jay looked out the window. The perpetually red sky was turning into a deep black. “It’s almost night time” Jay said softly “I should get up and start cookin’” Jay put on a robe and went downstairs and Andrew followed, in just his slacks. 

“We can finally be together out in public now” Jay said as he took meat from the fridge and an armful of vegetables “Not just because we’re two men and obvious sinners” He said “But there’s no need for you to hide any more. Everyone knows who everyone is here. There’s so much transparency. Jim Jones lives down the fucking street for fuck’s sake. And what an ugly house he’s got. It’s a blight on this whole street.” Jay shook his head before he put Andrew to work chopping carrots. 

“You wanna know where I got this meat?” Jay asked 

“Of course” Replied Andrew . 

“Ya see, there’s the people that are here for good reason. The people like us, that deserve our spot in Hell. We’re Satan’s favorites. We make up sort of an upper echelon. Then there’s the people that end up in the eternal punishment loop. Well it’s not hard to find someone whose punishment is to have all their limbs cut off and grow back. And they’re always looking for someone to do that kind of thing around here. “ 

Andrew had to laugh, how positively ridiculous and stereotypical! He loved it. Especially if they could bring one back here and do it. “I think I might be getting into the business of eternal punishment. If we’re going to do the domestic thing we ought to have a proper nine-to-five” Andrew nudged Jay with his elbow and Jay laughed just a bit too hard. 

Jay stopped cooking for a moment, he let water start to boil on the stove. “C’mere” he said, a paring knife in his hand. Andrew turned around and found Jay pressed against him, the knife up against Andrew’s throat. They stood in the middle of the same kitchen where they had had a similar confrontation that lead to this beautiful thing they now had. 

“Yes, Jay?” Andrew said as he felt the cold blade against his throat. 

“You know the best thing about Hell?” Jay asked. Andrew raised an eyebrow 

. “Do tell.” 

“I can do this” Jay slit Andrew’s throat with the knife. London’s Eternal Host fell to the floor in a spray of blood that got all over the kitchen. Andrew blacked out for a moment and was conscious soon after. “I can slit your throat and you’ll be just fine!” Jay was grinning ear to ear. Andrew stood up and looked at the mess in the kitchen before touching his neck. No wound? Incredible! He grabbed a knife, jabbed it into Jay and twisted. “Now now, mon cher, you’re gonna make me lose my appetite if you stab my stomach like that!” Andrew kept the knife in and kissed Jay hard before pulling it out slowly, watching Jay’s face as he savored the pain. Oh this was going to make the sex so much better! 

The wound closed and Jay went back to cooking. What a neat trick. Andrew licked the knife clean before using it to go back to chopping up carrots as a comfortable silence filled the room. 

“I guess in some way I must have always wanted this.” said the blond as he peeled a potato. “We both did” Andrew replied “We wanted someone who would never leave. And we got that someone. It just so happens that our someone has the same kind of bloodlust. And if you get a man that you’ve got something like that in common with you don’t let him go.” Jay dumped a cubed potato into the pot. 

“I certainly doubt either of is going anywhere now. They say Hell is other people, but I’m fairly certain if that person is the love of your life, then Hell can’t possibly be too bad.” Andrew smiled at his lover, his cool blue eyes soft with a love that he only had for Jay 

He let out a little chuckle before he spoke“I couldn’t agree more. Now show me how you plan to season these cutlets”


End file.
